Biden Suggests He Played a Part in Negotiations Between Israel and Egypt During the Six Day War By Debra Heine
Either Joe Biden’s faulty memory or his lifelong habit of padding his resume was on display Wednesday during a menorah lighting at the White House in celebration of Hanukkah.
During his remarks before the lighting, Biden bragged about “the many times” he’d been to Israel, and then decided to alter history and insert himself as an important player in the Six-Day War.
“I have known every — every prime minister well since Golda Meir, including Golda Meir,” Biden said to applause. “And during the Six-Day War, I had an opportunity to — she invited me to come over because I was going to be the liaison between she and the Egyptians about the Suez, and so on and so forth.”
This would be an impressive story, except Meir wasn’t Israel’s prime minister during the Six Day War of 1967 (she was PM from March 17, 1969 to June 3, 1974), and Biden was still in law school at the time, (where he ranked a dismal 76th in his class of 85).
National Review’s Jim Geraghty reports that Biden “did indeed meet Golda Meir in 1973—six years after the Six Day War,” but according to a contemporaneous classified Israeli memo, he spent his time trying to convince the prime minister to unilaterally withdrawal from areas in the region, rather than acting as an important liaison between Israel and the Egyptians.
Biden warned that Israel’s actions in the territories it had captured during the Six Day War, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were leading to “creeping annexation.”
Since he believed Israel was militarily dominant in the region, he suggested the Jewish state might initiate a first step for peace through unilateral withdrawals from areas with no strategic importance.
The official said Biden criticized the Nixon administration for being “dragged by Israel,” complaining that it was impossible to have a real debate in the Senate about the Middle East as senators were fearful of saying things unpopular with Jewish voters.
Meir rejected Biden’s call for unilateral steps, launching into a speech about the region and its problems (possibly the spiel Biden alluded to in his own comments years later).
The official added his own personal impressions regarding the young senator at the bottom of the document, saying Biden was full of respect toward the Israeli leader and repeatedly said he had come to learn, “and yet while speaking displayed a fervor and made comments that signaled his lack of diplomatic experience.”
There was no indication in the Israeli memo that Meir saw Biden as her liaison.
Side Note:
In its description of the menorah lighting celebration in the Biden White House, Getty Images falsely and absurdly claimed: “The ceremony at the White House marked the first time Hanukkah is celebrated with a Jewish member of either the First or Second Family, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.” (See below).
For four years, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner—President Trump’s Jewish daughter and son-in-law—celebrated Hanukkah at the White House.
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